Participatory journalism and the role of journalists

In recent years, there has been a rise in citizen journalism and user generated content, which has begun to call into question the role of journalists in such a society.

In 2001, in their book, the elements of journalism, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel made the compelling argument that the business of news was undergoing “a momentous transition”.

They argued that the new technologies we see coming through today along with other things.

Such as globalization and conglomeration of the media has caused a seismic shift away from journalism that is linked to citizen building, to one that overall supports a healthy democracy.

From this, it is clear to see that despite the rise of citizen journalism and user generated content, that the role of journalists is still important; as they are the information gatherers and are responsible for a number of things including editing, publishing news reports for various mediums.

The role of journalists despite the other providers of news, is becoming more open to citizen journalists and user generated content, in helping to develop how news is gathered and published and for the media to better understand their audience.

This has come from the rise of blogs, a form of participatory journalism.